Practical Methods For Design And Analysis Of Complex Surveys

Large surveys are becoming increasingly available for public use, and researchers are often faced with the need to analyse complex survey data to address key scientific issues. For proper analysis it is also important to be aware of the different aspects of the design of complex surveys. Practical Methods for Design and Analysis of Complex Surveys features intermediate and advanced statistical techniques for use in designing and analysing complex surveys. This extensively updated edition features much new material, and detailed practical exercises with links to a Web site, helping instructors and enabling use for distance learning. * Provides a comprehensive introduction to sampling and estimation in descriptive surveys, including design effect statistic and use of auxiliary data. * Includes detailed coverage of complex survey analysis, including design-based ANOVA and logistic regression with GEE estimation. * Contains much new material, including handling of non-sampling errors, and model-assisted estimation for domains. * Features detailed real-li fe case studies, such as multilevel modeling in a multinational educational survey. * Supported by a Web site containing software codes, real data sets, computerized exercises with solutions, and online training materials. Practical Methods for Design and Analysis of Complex Surveys provides a useful practical resource for researchers and practitioners working in the planning, implementation or analysis of complex surveys and opinion polls, including business, educational, health, social, and socio-economic surveys and official statistics. In addition, the book is well suited for use on intermediate and advanced courses in survey sampling.

This book deals with both survey sampling and survey analysis, the authors aim to provide the reader with a unified coverage of the practical tools of basic and more advanced survey sampling and estimation. Contents include: Sampling design - The design effect statistic - Use of auxiliary information - Methods for handling missing data - Variance and covariance estimation - Design-based analysis of frequency tables - Multivariate methods for complex surveys. Fully worked examples and case studies taken from official statistics and real surveys on health and social sciences are used to illustrate the various methods. Additional case studies are presented covering a range of topics such as business surveys, socio-economic surveys and educational surveys. Selected commercially available software packages for complex surveys are discussed with demonstrations using data from the case studies. Intended primarily for those involved in the planning, implementaion or analysis of descriptive or analytical surveys and opinion polls, the book will also be of interest to researchers and students in many disciplines. In addition, the book is well suited for use on courses in survey sampling.

A complete guide to carrying out complex survey analysis using R As survey analysis continues to serve as a core component of sociological research, researchers are increasingly relying upon data gathered from complex surveys to carry out traditional analyses. Complex Surveys is a practical guide to the analysis of this kind of data using R, the freely available and downloadable statistical programming language. As creator of the specific survey package for R, the author provides the ultimate presentation of how to successfully use the software for analyzing data from complex surveys while also utilizing the most current data from health and social sciences studies to demonstrate the application of survey research methods in these fields. The book begins with coverage of basic tools and topics within survey analysis such as simple and stratified sampling, cluster sampling, linear regression, and categorical data regression. Subsequent chapters delve into more technical aspects of complex survey analysis, including post-stratification, two-phase sampling, missing data, and causal inference. Throughout the book, an emphasis is placed on graphics, regression modeling, and two-phase designs. In addition, the author supplies a unique discussion of epidemiological two-phase designs as well as probability-weighting for causal inference. All of the book's examples and figures are generated using R, and a related Web site provides the R code that allows readers to reproduce the presented content. Each chapter concludes with exercises that vary in level of complexity, and detailed appendices outline additional mathematical and computational descriptions to assist readers with comparing results from various software systems. Complex Surveys is an excellent book for courses on sampling and complex surveys at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels. It is also a practical reference guide for applied statisticians and practitioners in the social and health sciences who use statistics in their everyday work.

Highly recommended by the Journal of Official Statistics, The American Statistician, and other journals, Applied Survey Data Analysis, Second Edition provides an up-to-date overview of state-of-the-art approaches to the analysis of complex sample survey data. Building on the wealth of material on practical approaches to descriptive analysis and regression modeling from the first edition, this second edition expands the topics covered and presents more step-by-step examples of modern approaches to the analysis of survey data using the newest statistical software. Designed for readers working in a wide array of disciplines who use survey data in their work, this book continues to provide a useful framework for integrating more in-depth studies of the theory and methods of survey data analysis. An example-driven guide to the applied statistical analysis and interpretation of survey data, the second edition contains many new examples and practical exercises based on recent versions of real-world survey data sets. Although the authors continue to use Stata for most examples in the text, they also continue to offer SAS, SPSS, SUDAAN, R, WesVar, IVEware, and Mplus software code for replicating the examples on the book’s updated website.

Complex Survey Data Analysis with SAS® is an invaluable resource for applied researchers analyzing data generated from a sample design involving any combination of stratification, clustering, unequal weights, or finite population correction factors. After clearly explaining how the presence of these features can invalidate the assumptions underlying most traditional statistical techniques, this book equips readers with the knowledge to confidently account for them during the estimation and inference process by employing the SURVEY family of SAS/STAT® procedures. The book offers comprehensive coverage of the most essential topics, including: Drawing random samples Descriptive statistics for continuous and categorical variables Fitting and interpreting linear and logistic regression models Survival analysis Domain estimation Replication variance estimation methods Weight adjustment and imputation methods for handling missing data The easy-to-follow examples are drawn from real-world survey data sets spanning multiple disciplines, all of which can be downloaded for free along with syntax files from the author’s website: http://mason.gmu.edu/~tlewis18/. While other books may touch on some of the same issues and nuances of complex survey data analysis, none features SAS exclusively and as exhaustively. Another unique aspect of this book is its abundance of handy workarounds for certain techniques not yet supported as of SAS Version 9.4, such as the ratio estimator for a total and the bootstrap for variance estimation. Taylor H. Lewis is a PhD graduate of the Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and an adjunct professor in the George Mason University Department of Statistics. An avid SAS user for 15 years, he is a SAS Certified Advanced programmer and a nationally recognized SAS educator who has produced dozens of papers and workshops illustrating how to efficiently and effectively conduct statistical analyses using SAS.

This edition is a reprint of the second edition published by Cengage Learning, Inc. Reprinted with permission. What is the unemployment rate? How many adults have high blood pressure? What is the total area of land planted with soybeans? Sampling: Design and Analysis tells you how to design and analyze surveys to answer these and other questions. This authoritative text, used as a standard reference by numerous survey organizations, teaches sampling using real data sets from social sciences, public opinion research, medicine, public health, economics, agriculture, ecology, and other fields. The book is accessible to students from a wide range of statistical backgrounds. By appropriate choice of sections, it can be used for a graduate class for statistics students or for a class with students from business, sociology, psychology, or biology. Readers should be familiar with concepts from an introductory statistics class including linear regression; optional sections contain the statistical theory, for readers who have studied mathematical statistics. Distinctive features include: More than 450 exercises. In each chapter, Introductory Exercises develop skills, Working with Data Exercises give practice with data from surveys, Working with Theory Exercises allow students to investigate statistical properties of estimators, and Projects and Activities Exercises integrate concepts. A solutions manual is available. An emphasis on survey design. Coverage of simple random, stratified, and cluster sampling; ratio estimation; constructing survey weights; jackknife and bootstrap; nonresponse; chi-squared tests and regression analysis. Graphing data from surveys. Computer code using SAS® software. Online supplements containing data sets, computer programs, and additional material. Sharon Lohr, the author of Measuring Crime: Behind the Statistics, has published widely about survey sampling and statistical methods for education, public policy, law, and crime. She has been recognized as Fellow of the American Statistical Association, elected member of the International Statistical Institute, and recipient of the Gertrude M. Cox Statistics Award and the Deming Lecturer Award. Formerly Dean’s Distinguished Professor of Statistics at Arizona State University and a Vice President at Westat, she is now a freelance statistical consultant and writer. Visit her website at www.sharonlohr.com.

This book is concerned with statistical methods for the analysis of data collected from a survey. A survey could consist of data collected from a questionnaire or from measurements, such as those taken as part of a quality control process. Concerned with the statistical methods for the analysis of sample survey data, this book will update and extend the successful book edited by Skinner, Holt and Smith on 'Analysis of Complex Surveys'. The focus will be on methodological issues, which arise when applying statistical methods to sample survey data and will discuss in detail the impact of complex sampling schemes. Further issues, such as how to deal with missing data and measurement of error will also be critically discussed. There have significant improvements in statistical software which implement complex sampling schemes (eg SUDAAN, STATA, WESVAR, PC CARP ) in the last decade and there is greater need for practical advice for those analysing survey data. To ensure a broad audience, the statistical theory will be made accessible through the use of practical examples. This book will be accessible to a broad audience of statisticians but will primarily be of interest to practitioners analysing survey data. Increased awareness by social scientists of the variety of powerful statistical methods will make this book a useful reference.

The goal of this book is to put an array of tools at the fingertips of students, practitioners, and researchers by explaining approaches long used by survey statisticians, illustrating how existing software can be used to solve survey problems, and developing some specialized software where needed. This volume serves at least three audiences: (1) students of applied sampling techniques; 2) practicing survey statisticians applying concepts learned in theoretical or applied sampling courses; and (3) social scientists and other survey practitioners who design, select, and weight survey samples. The text thoroughly covers fundamental aspects of survey sampling, such as sample size calculation (with examples for both single- and multi-stage sample design) and weight computation, accompanied by software examples to facilitate implementation. Features include step-by-step instructions for calculating survey weights, extensive real-world examples and applications, and representative programming code in R, SAS, and other packages. Since the publication of the first edition in 2013, there have been important developments in making inferences from nonprobability samples, in address-based sampling (ABS), and in the application of machine learning techniques for survey estimation. New to this revised and expanded edition: • Details on new functions in the PracTools package • Additional machine learning methods to form weighting classes • New coverage of nonlinear optimization algorithms for sample allocation • Reflecting effects of multiple weighting steps (nonresponse and calibration) on standard errors • A new chapter on nonprobability sampling • Additional examples, exercises, and updated references throughout Richard Valliant, PhD, is Research Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan and at the Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, an elected member of the International Statistical Institute, and has been an Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association, Journal of Official Statistics, and Survey Methodology. Jill A. Dever, PhD, is Senior Research Statistician at RTI International in Washington, DC. She is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, Associate Editor for Survey Methodology and the Journal of Official Statistics, and an Assistant Research Professor in the Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland. She has served on several panels for the National Academy of Sciences and as a task force member for the American Association of Public Opinion Research’s report on nonprobability sampling. Frauke Kreuter, PhD, is Professor and Director of the Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland, Professor of Statistics and Methodology at the University of Mannheim, and Head of the Statistical Methods Research Department at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Nürnberg, Germany. She is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and has been Associate Editor of the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Journal of Official Statistics, Sociological Methods and Research, Survey Research Methods, Public Opinion Quarterly, American Sociological Review, and the Stata Journal. She is founder of the International Program for Survey and Data Science and co-founder of the Coleridge Initiative.

The three parts of this book on survey methodology combine an introduction to basic sampling theory, engaging presentation of topics that reflect current research trends, and informed discussion of the problems commonly encountered in survey practice. These related aspects of survey methodology rarely appear together under a single connected roof, making this book a unique combination of materials for teaching, research and practice in survey sampling. Basic knowledge of probability theory and statistical inference is assumed, but no prior exposure to survey sampling is required. The first part focuses on the design-based approach to finite population sampling. It contains a rigorous coverage of basic sampling designs, related estimation theory, model-based prediction approach, and model-assisted estimation methods. The second part stems from original research conducted by the authors as well as important methodological advances in the field during the past three decades. Topics include calibration weighting methods, regression analysis and survey weighted estimating equation (EE) theory, longitudinal surveys and generalized estimating equations (GEE) analysis, variance estimation and resampling techniques, empirical likelihood methods for complex surveys, handling missing data and non-response, and Bayesian inference for survey data. The third part provides guidance and tools on practical aspects of large-scale surveys, such as training and quality control, frame construction, choices of survey designs, strategies for reducing non-response, and weight calculation. These procedures are illustrated through real-world surveys. Several specialized topics are also discussed in detail, including household surveys, telephone and web surveys, natural resource inventory surveys, adaptive and network surveys, dual-frame and multiple frame surveys, and analysis of non-probability survey samples. This book is a self-contained introduction to survey sampling that provides a strong theoretical base with coverage of current research trends and pragmatic guidance and tools for conducting surveys.